The backyard foundry hazard thing is very real, and people get in over their head sometimes and get hurt.
That is the downside to backyard casting.
Not everyone is cut out to do backyard casting work, and random non-skilled people should generally not be trying to cast metal without some sort of training.
The good side to backyard casting is that one can reproduce many of the old designs at any scale, and in gray iron if you take the time to learn how to cast gray iron.
Making patterns and getting gray iron castings made has been a part of the model engine hobby since at least 1920 (where I saw it in two magazine articles), and no doubt it dates back to long before 1920.
Many hobby folks have been aware of the cupola-style of iron casting for a long time, and there are some good books out on that.
Finding a supply of coke (fuel) for a cupola has become a problem that I have never been able to solve.
Not being able to find a source for coke has turned out to be a good thing, since using fuel oil to melt iron in a crucible furnace is infinitely more simple than operating a cupola. An oil-fired furnace with a crane and pouring cart can be operated by one person, and can pour in excess of 200 lbs of iron at a time, if you want to scale it up to such a size. A cupola of any size generally requires a multi-person crew to operate, and it makes a huge mess to clean up. The tapping part of crucible operation is often a wild proceedure to witness, with molten metal often spraying everywhere.
Photos below.
Despite all the fire and flames, the cupola folks have a rigorous safety program, with multiple people at each pour dedicated to safety only during the entire event. They train beforehand, and have pre-post safety meetings, and detailed safety discussions.
Cupola iron pours look wild, but there is nothing random about what happens during one of these events, especially with regards to safety.
The people you see standing around in the photos are not just casual observers, but each has a safety function, and you can seen them watching the process intently.
And some hobby folks around the world have been aware that gray iron could be melted with a fuel oil (such as diesel) for a long time, but I don't know the timeline on that.
I discovered someone melting gray iron in a backyard setting with an oil burner in 2011, and that is the first I recall ever seeing iron melted with fuel oil.
Before 2011 I was under the assumption that a cupola with coke was the only way to melt iron.
I have been very excited about learning that gray iron can be melted with an oil burner ever since I discovered that in 2011.
I wish more people would build oil-fired iron furnaces, and propogate that knowledge-base/skill for use in making model engine parts.
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